#GIVETHANKS

At the invitation of our church leader, who we revere as a prophet, I'm posting a few things I'm grateful for right now:

a husband who loves me; five wonderful children, all healthy and gainfully employed; one official in-law, and two un-official; two sweet grandchildren; health; prosperity; plenty to keep me busy; and much to look forward to.

What are you grateful for these days?

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

#givethanks

Moms' Cafe

When our children were very young we lived in a suburb of Washington DC in Northern Virginia. Often we would meet Daddy after work and stop at a fast food place for supper. Our children became VERY familiar with them. However, as our family grew to five children we decided that eating out was too expensive. The first time we chose to eat at home the children asked, "Where are we going to eat tonight?" And we answered, "At Mom's Cafe!" They were so excited to try a new place. Ha ha! We pulled into the driveway and they were totally puzzled. It only worked a few times before they caught on and didn't want to go to "Mom's Cafe". But we didn't care, we went anyway.

Hence, my kitchen became known as Mom's Cafe.

Fast forward many years and all the children are leaving home. They asked me to put together a cookbook with all the family favorites. I promised, worked on it a bit, procrastinated and promised some more. 

This summer I decided to get it done. 

Tah-Dah! (And yes, I'm inadvertently revealing my true identity, but hey, we're among friends here.)

Each child got a different colored book.

Each Section is labeled and on the other side (sorry no photo) is a list of recipes in the section.

On a few recipes I included photos.

The Housekeeping section is to remind them of what I taught them, plus a few things for grownups

such as defrosting a chest freezer and cleaning an oven.

That's a huge project completed and crossed off my list. Now on to some T-shirt quilts and photo albums. 

Oh my. I'm tired already!

Not Your Grandma's Oatmeal

Oats are so versatile! I like to dress them up with all sorts of fruits, nuts, spices, etc. This one is Peaches and Cream. (Center is chopped walnuts and a teaspoon of brown sugar, and heavy cream over all)

I use old-fashioned thick oats for a better texture.

2 parts water to one part oats, plus a dash of salt is the ratio I always use.

Bring water and salt to a boil, add oats and reduce heat to simmer for approximately 7 minutes. Stir occasionally. Oats are done when most (99%) of the water is absorbed. Spoon into bowls and top with whatever your heart desires.

I often cook chopped apples or dried fruit with the oats. 

Last week we had Caramel Apple Oatmeal; made with a chopped Granny Smith apple cooked with the oats, then drizzled with caramel sauce (the kind you put on ice cream). Oh my was that yummy!

Hooray! It's Finally Blooming

Two years ago my husband gave me a lilac bush for Mother's Day. This year it finally bloomed and smells lovely!

My lilac with my neighbor's tulips peeking out in the background.

My little lilac and the neighbor's large lilac. (The stake marks the property line.)

I wish I could share the fragrance too.

Neighbor's dark purple lilac - smells really good also!

Design Differences

Last fall I took a quilt making class with several other women. I had purchased a quilt kit but when I arrived at the class I saw another student's color choices and I immediately wanted them for mine. The shop owner was gracious and let me exchange my kit for the new colors.

We got to the point of assembling our quilts and I didn't like the way it went together according to the pattern so I played around with mine a bit and came up with what I think is a better layout.

Here are the two quilts side by side. Mine is on the right. What do you think?

Both quilt tops are pretty; the photo doesn't do the colors justice at all--they are the colors of sunset and just gorgeous. I just think mine, on the right, is more harmonious and balanced.

Friday's Frugal Roundup

Sometimes a notion strikes and you just run with it. Sometimes it turns out to a good frugal thing!

Today's notion was to clean and organize the cupboard that holds most of the bathroom stuff.

BEFORE
(sort of, I began and then remembered to take a photo)

One benefit of cleaning and organizing was that I found five rolls of toilet paper that I had forgotten about! FRUGAL FIND! I promptly put those in the teenagers bathroom. (Have I not said we have two teenage boy exchange students with us this year? Well, we do.)

AFTER

Second benefit was that I could adjust the shelves a bit and fit a full case of TP on the top shelf, thereby freeing the space taken up in the hallway by the box of TP.

Definitions of FRUGAL:

From The Random House Dictionary 1980: economical in use or expenditure
From Oxford American Dictionary 1980: careful and economical
From Webster's Dictionary 1828: Economical in the use or appropriation of money, goods or provisions of any kind; saving unnecessary expense, either of money or of any thing else which is to be used or consumed; sparing; not profuse, prodigal or lavish.

According to Webster I'm pretty darn frugal in my use of this cupboard. I moved a few things to a tub in another closet; and moved a few things from a cupboard inside the bathroom to this cupboard so I can see exactly how much I have all together. After all, being frugal means not buying more because you can't find what you thought you had, somewhere.

Other frugal activities this week were eating up leftovers creatively; making Valentine's Day greeting cards instead of buying them (well, actually that was last week, but I didn't report it); making Cranberry Bread for a birthday present; trimming my husband's hair; picking up some small gifts for upcoming birthdays while they were on sale (the gifts, not the birthdays).

Front of Valentine card

Inside of Valentine card

Friday Funny

From our church bulletin in July advertising the Empty Nester Family Home Evening group picnic.

(Check the second line)

Friday's Frugal Roundup

Okay, so there's not much frugal about Legos, unless you get them at a thrift store or yard sale, but they are sure fun. This is the set "Santa" gave me for Christmas this year. I thoroughly enjoyed putting it all together and can fully understand why our boys love them so much, even as adults.

On to the roundup--

• I stuck to my menu plan, including a "clean out the fridge" dinner. 
• I used thrifted wrapping paper for Lt. Lehi and Jellybean's birthday presents.
• Used cold water for laundry
• Made lunches each day for TopDad and Mr. Movie
• Took a snack and water with me for my day of errands and shopping
• Stuck to my shopping list, except for a couple of unadvertised deals on stock up items, such as Potatoes 5 lbs. $.99; eggs $.50/dozen; 
• Enjoyed glorious sunrises and sunsets
• Enjoyed seeing the full moon veiled by misty clouds

It doesn't look like much, but every bit adds up over time.

Thrifted gift wrap

What have you done to save money or not spend this week?

Sunday's Spiritual Thought

Grain Elevator lit by the morning sun. Taken from our front porch.

Genesis 41:47-48 And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.

Friday's Frugal Roundup

Long time no see . . .

Happy New Year! I've got some plans that I'll reveal along the way. How about you? I do want to get back to doing a regular post about all my frugal activities. Particularly as I'll be working harder on that this year. I have a goal to reach and I need to be more serious and creative about not spending.

So here's the roundup:

• My husband and I had a little get away for my birthday and stayed two nights at a AirBnB which was much cheaper and way nicer than any hotel we've ever stayed in.
• I used cold water for most of my laundry this week (whites do better for me in warm)
• Cleaned out and organized 2 refrigerators with freezers and 1 chest freezer; inventoried the food for menu planning
• Made bread crumbs from all the collected ends and crusts from the freezer
• Bought navy blue shoe polish so I can maintain my expensive dress pumps
• Made lunches for my husband and son to take to work
• Got out my cloth handkerchiefs to use instead of paper tissues
• Made next week's menu plan using up items from the fridges and freezer
• Returned library books on time to avoid any fines

One of my goals this year is to have a No Spend year--meaning I won't spend on any of my vices such as books, patterns, fabric, movies, music, dishes, pretties, etc. I don't need any clothes either, except the ones I'm going to sew from patterns and fabric I already have. I have a goal to save a specific amount for a specific project (to be revealed later) so I'm motivated to stay disciplined and deliberate in my spending this year.

I also did all my usual things of keeping the thermostat low and wearing a sweater or hoodie; opening the curtains to let the sun in, closing them when the sun isn't shining to hold the heat in; planning errands to minimize gas usage; turning off lights, and water, etc.

What did you do to save money or not spend this week?